There’s a new queen in town. Following Claire Foy and Olivia Colman, Imelda Staunton becomes the latest British actress to take on the role of Elizabeth II in The Crown. She has even released a statement.
Netflix has announced that Staunton will take on the role in the 5th season of its royal drama. It also announced that the show will end with that season, one season shorter than the six-season plan creator Peter Morgan had originally envisioned for the show...
According to a statement from Morgan put out by Netflix, this was a creative decision “now that we have begun work on the stories for S5 it has become clear to me that this is the perfect time and place to stop.” Interesting. Has the show become prohibitively expensive? Or are they afraid that the recent anti-royalist headlines with both the Prince Andrew -Jeffrey Epstein scandal and the Harry / Meghan secession would have an adverse impact on the show’s popularity.
I did not care for the recently released 3rd season. Colman was miscast, having to hamper down her innate hilarious charisma to play the totally sedate and unhumourous monarch. It didn’t help that Helena Bonham Carter was offering yet another version of her Tim Burtonesque eccentrics with no illusion to Margaret. The stories also felt redundant. Perhaps it's time to move on.
Are you excited to see Staunton's take on the Queen?